iYellow Wine School VQ’EH Part 3

On Tuesday July 27th, I attended the last in the iYellow Wine School’s Spring/Summer Term classes, held at Café Taste. This final instalment, entitled “Full Figured and Graceful” walked us through a sparkling wine, two Chardonnays and eight reds, paired with five cheeses from Café Taste’s extensive menu.

Though it was a sultry mid-summer Toronto night and perhaps the last thing on many people’s mind was tasting 10 wines and eating cheese, the light(-hearted) atmosphere of iYellow’s classes meant that just few minutes in, we were chatting easily with our neighbours and enjoying the fabulous wines on offer.

As usual, Sommelier Taylor Thompson led us through the wines and this time, he took a much more leisurely pace than the previous class which I, as a novice wine taster (though, I hasten to add, most definitely not a novice wine drinker!), appreciated. Since the classes are aimed at people who are learning how to properly taste and describe wine, a slower pace allows you to really digest the information (no pun intended!), taste the wines properly and make notes for yourself. Thompson offers proper tasting notes but encourages people to “shout out” their thoughts, which can be very amusing (but also reassuring when you hear someone saying that a wine reminds them of something completely the opposite to what Thompson is suggesting!).

I had the fortune to be sitting at a table full of people with much greater wine knowledge than me (iYellow often invite winery representatives to these classes) which was not only informative but also highly entertaining I find it impressive that these reps are genuinely interested in hearing what the average wine drinker (i.e. me!) thinks about their product.

iYellow really do stand by their promise and offer an informal, non-intimidating atmosphere in which to learn about wine. If you are looking for a fun way to increase your wine knowledge or simply taste some different wines in a relaxed setting, you should definitely check out the iYellow Wine School’s fall schedule.